Ice Cold
by ChandaK562
Summary: Paul decides to finish off someone. Kingdom Hospital story
1. chapter 1

"Hey, Lona," Elmer called as he poked his head into the sleep lab.  
"Are you sure that you don't need me for any tests tonight?" It was almost midnight and besides wanting the chance to spend some more time with Lona, wanting another chance to convince her that they would be perfect together, Elmer really wasn't wanting to have to deal with driving home at that late hour.

"Not tonight." Lona said with a reluctant shake of her head.  
True, Elmer's flirting could be a pain but she really did want to get more research time with him as the guinea pig in. She shook her head once more,  
pushing that desire aside, as she looked at the pile of papers before her.  
"I made the mistake of walking past Dr. James's office right after the new quality reports arrived this afternoon. I have to have them finished by tomorrow morning."

"I thought that Otto was supposed to issue warnings about that the next time those reports arrived." Elmer said, laughing slightly as he saw the size of papers in front of Lona. "You might have a dwarf popping in here soon, you know. If he wants your first born child if you can't guess his name, it's Rumplestiltskin."

"I know the fairy tale, Elmer." Lona said as she rolled her eyes.  
Had Sally Druse ever mentioned dwarves roaming through the halls of was it just ghosts? As Lona looked on the stack of papers she was suddenly hoping for a funny dwarf to pop up. Either that or for the hospital ghost to have very good handwriting.

"You know, I could stay and help you with those." Elmer said eagerly. "I'm really good at filling out papers and things."

"I don't think so, Elmer. Jesse wants these legible. They have to go in to the state." Lona told him. Of course, she was not going to guarantee for Jesse that by the millionth paper she filled out that her handwriting was going to be very legible either.

"My handwriting isn't that bad. Not as bad as my dad's anyway.  
come on. I did stuff like this all the time in school. Let me help you"  
Elmer begged.

"Elmer, go home! I'll be fine!" Lona said firmly, reaching out behind her as she spoke trying to pull her chair forward.

"Lona, watch..." Elmer winced as her hand hit the coffee cup before he could finish his warning, sending it toppling forward, the liquid splashing the rear of Lona's skirt. He hurried forward, hoping that the coffee was the hospital's usual cold staff offering and not something actually hot. Somehow, he doubted that Lona wanted burns in that particular location.

"Are you okay?" He asked her, a bit of worry in his eyes. "Want me to help clean up?"

"NO! Go away!" Lona cried, practically shoving Elmer out of the lab and slamming the door behind him.

Elmer stood there for a moment, just staring at the door in shock.  
Why in the world had Lona blown up like that due to the simple question of if she needed him to go find Johnny or a mop to clean up the mess? He shook his head as he headed down the hallway. Despite how stupid people seemed to find him, he definitely knew better than to risk his neck going back in there again. The coffee obviously had been hot after all. He just hoped that she hadn't burned herself too badly with it. He had a feeling that Lona would be very reluctant to seek treatment for any burns there.  
Maybe he ought to find his dad and get him to go check her? He shook his head a moment later as he recalled that his father was in surgery, though.  
Well, maybe he would run into Hook or Chris and could send them down. He didn't want Lona to end up sick or something.

"Hey!" Elmer called as he spied the man coming down the hallway with a broom. Not Johnny. Obviously one of the string of fill in janitors. "Listen, you need to get a mop and head down to the sleep lab.  
There's a mess in there that needs cleaning up." he told the man before heading for the elevator. He could check with Otto and see where Hook and Chris were so he could ask them to check on Lona for him and make sure she didn't get burnt seriously or something. 


	2. chapter 2

Lona winced with pain as she headed into the female physicians'  
showers, going over to a locker, slowly and rather painfully shedding her clothing. She turned slightly as she moved in front of one of the dressing mirrors trying to observe the extent of the damage to her backside. She should have definitely known better than to grab that coffee when she saw the nuts down in the cafeteria using a welding torch to heat it up. The area was definitely red but with a soft sigh, she saw that there were no blisters, anyway. She reached into the locker, snagging a towel before heading for the shower hot tub. Maybe a soak would make her feel better.  
She had to do something soon. She had those stupid reports to finish and she couldn't do them like this, not when she couldn't sit down without screaming!

Lona sighed once more as she slipped into the water. For some reason, the temperature of the hot tub in there never got too warm, a definite plus at the moment. She slowly lowered herself down, slipping shoulder deep into the water as she eased down on her burn. Okay, still a bit painful but not as bad. She would just stay in here and soak until she was feeling better. She closed her eyes and leaned back, letting the jets of water gently massage her. Yes, she would definitely be soaking in here for awhile.

Paul slipped through the wall, unseen by Lona. When he caught sight of the blonde head leaning back, resting on the edge of the tub, he smirked. He wasn't sure exactly which blonde it was but he knew he could have some fun either way. He edged closer, his smirk growing when he saw that the blonde in question was the one that the loser liked so much. Not only would he get to see that freak lose it when he found out that something had happened to her, but Paul knew that Mary needed Lona to help her with trying to prevent the earthquake.

"See if she can help you after I get finished with her, brat"  
Paul muttered as he moved to the hot tub. First he was going to scare her a bit, though. His hands dipped into the water, clouds of steam rising up as the tub started to rapidly cool.

Lona shivered as she felt the temperature change. Just great. The thermostat for the hot tub must have given up the ghost completely and of course she knew that there wasn't a chance that she was going to be able to get Johnny down there to take a look at it any time soon. Se reluctantly opened her eyes and started to stand. Maybe she could give the showers a try instead.

Suddenly, there were hands pushing her back into a seated position,  
causing Lona to gasp with surprise.

Paul let out a slight laugh as he pushed Lona down. His hands were moving lower now, starting to touch her more intimately, stroking her breasts with a hard touch as his pleasure started to increase.

Lona let out a scream as she felt the hands on her breasts, the touch painful on the sensitive skin. She reached down, trying to push them away but there was nothing there. Suddenly, before she could react, she felt herself being lifted up, half out of the water, the touch on her body starting to go lower as she kicked, trying to force whatever this was away from her.

"Paul! Leave her alone! What are you doing?" Mary screamed as she came running in through the wall. She reached out, knowing that she just wasn't strong enough to stop Paul but trying her best anyway. She grabbed at his arms, trying to pull him away for a second, to give Lona a chance to escape.

"Keep out of my way, brat!" Paul yelled, throwing the little girl off of him and sending her crashing back against the bank of lockers. His smirk grew when he heard he sniffle in pain. Then he started to frown as he realized the little pest being here would mean that that giant furry babysitter of hers would be along soon as well. Better finish this off quickly. He could always go down to the morgue later and do some other stuff if he decided to. He had a feeling that's what the loser would be doing once he got the news.

Lona was in a daze at this point. Whatever had been holding her had loosened its grip and she knew she should take the opportunity to flee but the cold of the water and the shock of the attack were combining to sap her strength totally. Before she had time to force herself into motion somehow, the grip tightened once more and Lona suddenly felt her head being plunged under water, hard, cruel fingers pressing firmly down on her neck and shoulders.

"Paul, no!" Mary screamed as she saw what he was doing. "Antubis!  
Antubis!" She pulled herself to her feet and hurried over, grabbing at Paul again and trying to pull him back, to make him let Dr. Lona go.

Lona tried to hold her breath but that was rapidly becoming impossible, bright lights starting to flash in front of her eyes,  
increasing in intensity as more time passed without oxygen. She felt a black void opening up in front of her, felt herself starting to slid down.  
It was the female showers, though, she suddenly found herself thinking. At least that meant that Elmer wouldn't be the one to stumble on her body.  
Then the blackness took her completely and she knew no more.

Paul looked up as he heard the familiar roar and saw the large anteater rushing through the wall, his teeth bared. "Too late, pest"  
Paul said as he stood, letting Lona slump down into the water so that she was floating face down. Mary fell to her knees beside the tub, reaching out for Lona as Paul smirked. "Be seeing you."

'Mary, what happened?' Antubis asked gently as he moved to the little girl's side, his long tongue snaking out to lick at her face, easing the pain from where Paul had thrown her.

"He had Dr. Lona and I think he was going to do something really bad to her." Mary whispered as she started to softly sob. A boy had done something bad like that to one of the mill girls once and she had never been right afterwards. Maybe it was okay that she hadn't saved Dr. Lona if it meant that she would be spared that. "Then he held her under the water and I couldn't stop him." The green mist was starting to appear now as he sobs increased. "He killed her!" 


	3. chapter 3

Mary reached out for her bell as her tears started to fall harder.  
She didn't want to do this, didn't want to have to ring her bell for Dr.  
Lona but the urge to do so was almost overpowering. "I'm really, really sorry." she whispered softly as she touched Lona's hand for a moment before taking the bell in her hand. Elmer was going to be so sad when he found out. She felt terrible to be doing this to him when she had had to do the same thing with his mother only a short time before. He would be so sad.

'Wait a minute.' Antubis motioned for Mary to stop as he touched the water carefully with his tongue, seeking some sort of way to fix this.  
He couldn't just drag Lona out of the water like he had drug Peter, not with her completely naked, and he wasn't sure at this point without a human nearby to help if that would be the best course of action anyway. The water was icy, almost freezing his tongue as he touched it. Suddenly,  
Antubis recalled something from last winter and an idea hit him. Maybe there was a way that they could fix this, or at least buy a bit of time until they could get someone down here to fix this.

'Mary, I need you to listen to me carefully and do exactly what I say right now.' Antubis told the little girl firmly but gently. He would need her help if this was going to work.

"Can you help her?" Mary asked. She didn't see how but Antubis did seem to pay a lot more attention to what the doctors were doing when they wondered through the hospital than she did. Maybe he knew something to do to fix Dr. Lona. Mary didn't want her to die.

'I know something that might work. I need you to touch the bell with one hand and then touch the water with the other. Then repeat after me. 'frigium glacialis.''

Mary nodded although she didn't really understand what Antubis was wanting her to do. She reached out, slowly touching the water as she started to repeat the phrase. The urge to ring her bell for Dr. Lona was almost overpowering and she had to struggle to keep from giving in.  
Antubis had to know what he was doing, had to know of a way to save her.

"Antubis, what did you do?!" Mary cried a moment or two later when she saw ice starting to form in the water, felt it becoming painfully cold.  
She though he was trying to help things, not trying to make a popcicle!

'Hopefully buying enough time to fix this.' the anteater said with a shake of his head as he felt the water temperature again. Definitely much colder and more ice was starting to form. Hopefully that would be perfect for what they needed.

"You froze her!" Mary cried, starting to sob once more before she suddenly realized something. The urge to ring her bell and call for Dr.  
Lona was gone. "Antubis, what did you do?"

'Hopefully bought enough time to find someone competent to come down here and fix this.' Someone competent. In Kingdom Hospital finding a competent member of the staff was a task that would definitely take awhile.  
Maybe he ought to lower the water temperature just a bit more in case?  
No, he shook his head after a moment. The current temperature would have to do. Maybe he would hit it lucky and Hook would be paying a visit to Peter Rickman tonight. He looked vaguely competent. 'I'm going to go and find someone to help. You just stay right there and keep an eye on her until I get back.'

Mary nodded as the anteater vanished through the wall before turning her attention to Dr. Lona. The ice was forming in her hair now and her skin was starting to take on a dead white appearance. "Dr. Lona?  
Antubis went to go and get help, okay?" the little girl called as she reached out, taking Lona's hand and holding it gently in both of hers.  
"You're going to be okay. I'm so sorry that I couldn't stop Paul from hurting you." She stopped speaking for a moment, trying to think of what she could do to maybe help Dr. Lona until Antubis got back with help.  
"Would you feel better if I maybe sang to you until Antubis comes back?  
He's really smart and it won't take him long to find someone to help you.  
You're going to be fine." Mary said softly as she started to softly sing the first song to pop into her head, the ballad, 'Barbara Allen.' 


	4. chapter 4

The elevators were running slow and it had taken forever for Elmer to get upstairs. "Otto?" He called as he poked his head into the security guard's area. No, it was empty though except for Blondi, who had apparently just woke up from a nap and was glaring at him. Now what was he going to do? He couldn't leave until he made sure that Lona was okay and hadn't really burned herself badly. It wouldn't be right.

As Elmer was trying to decide what in the world he ought to do,  
Antubis came padding into the area. 'Where's Hook?' he called to Blondi,  
unheard by the human.

'On his way down to his Kingdom.' Blondi informed his pal with a snicker. 'Dr. Draper has this little red, silk thing and....' The dog snickered again as he thought of it. He honestly didn't know why humans seemed to find clothing and the less clothing the better so fascinating.  
Antubis was silent for a moment as he thought. Hook was definitely the most competent doctor around and he was sure that was what Lona needed if her life was going to be saved. How to get him to the showers,  
though....

'What's going on?' Blondi asked his friend.

'Paul drowned Dr. Massingale down in the showers. Mary and I fixed it for now but she needs a doctor.' Antubis looked over at Elmer for a moment. The young man was technically a doctor but where did he fall on the competence scale, now? The anteater kind of felt he was on the lower end of it. Still, he WAS there, though. 'Hey, try nudging the monitor to camera 5. Maybe we can get his attention.'

'Elmer? Good luck with that.' Blondi was alarmed by what Antubis had said about Lona, though. A doctor drowning somehow didn't seem like a very secure thing and his human was supposed to be in charge of things like that. The dog stood on his hind paws, nudging at the buttons with his nose to try to get the right camera in.

"What are you doing? Have you seen Dr. Hook?" Elmer said as he noticed that Blondi was trying to do something with the monitors. He moved further in curiously, looking at what the dog was doing. He had never seen Blondi pull this particular stunt before.

'Just pay attention if you can.' the dog told Elmer firmly. 'And don't go getting distracted by anything like a head or something!' After another moment of flipping, he finally found the right camera and sat back with a satisfied bark. Now if the young human would just figure things out for a change. He wasn't sure that they should have much hope for that,  
though. After the head mess, Blondi had definitely concluded that Elmer probably wasn't the brightest human around. He wondered if they would serve nice food for Dr. Massingale's funeral? He hoped that there would be cake.

"Where in the world is that camera?" Elmer said to himself as he looked at the image on the monitor that the dog had been fooling with.  
Obviously some sort of locker room. Why would they have cameras in the locker rooms, though? He was just starting to puzzle over that when he noticed the clothes laying on a bench by the bank of lockers. Of course,  
the picture wasn't the best but.... "The ladies' showers?" he muttered.  
Otto had a camera with a view into the ladies' showers? Had Otto lost his mind or something. No, he wouldn't be the one who could have had it put in, though, Elmer realized. That would be Dr. James. Oh, when the ladies found out about this one, he didn't even like to think of what they were going to do to the hospital's idiot administrator.

Suddenly something hit Elmer and he looked closely at the monitor,  
trying to make out what he thought he had saw. After a moment, his eyes widened with shock. He was sure that the clothes on the bench were what Lona had been wearing in the lab when she got the coffee spilled on her.

"I've got to get down there and warn her!" he muttered as he turned and rushed for the showers. If Lona ended up on the security cameras for all to see without a stitch of clothing on.... Elmer just hoped that she would take a nice, long shower!

'Do you think he can help?' Blondi asked as the two animals watched Elmer rush off.

'I don't know but I suppose he has to know a little something.  
They wouldn't let him become a doctor if he didn't, would they?' Of course, there was the fact that Stegman had somehow became a doctor. They really needed to screen better at these medical schools. 'Go find Dr. Hook and get him down to the showers somehow. I better go back down there and see if I can nudge him in the right direction.' 


	5. chapter 5

As he hurried towards the showers, another little problem suddenly hit Elmer. How in the world was he going to get Lona's attention? He couldn't exactly go in there and warn her she was being filmed! It WAS the ladies' showers, after all. She would think that he was just as bad as Dr.  
James!

Suddenly, Elmer spotted what he hoped was the solution to his problems. "Carrie! Carrie, wait!" He called as he spotted the nurse at the far end of the hall.

"What do you need, Elmer?" Carrie rolled her eyes as she heard the young man calling her name and turned, heading back in his direction. She liked Elmer but she was definitely more than a bit annoyed still over the head incident.

"I need you to help me with something. Come on." Elmer was afraid to actually tell Carrie about the cameras. He was pretty sure that although the showers were officially for the doctors only, there were a group of nurses that used them as well. He didn't even want to think about how Carrie would take it if she found out she might have been on camera naked. Could Otto tape those things or something? Elmer definitely hoped that he couldn't. It would really be a shame to see the ladies kill him,  
after all.

A couple of minutes later, they were in front of the showers,  
Carrie looking at Elmer like he had definitely lost it. "Let me get this straight. You want me to go in there and tell Lona that you have an emergency and need to talk to her but she can't go into the locker room to get dressed? Elmer, what are you up to? You know that Lona's going to kill you if you pull anymore jokes on her, right?" What was it going to take for Elmer to finally get a clue?

"I'm not joking! Look, Carrie, it's really, really important for me to talk to Lona right away so I just need you to go in there and take her her clothes and tell her to come out here, okay? It's very important that you take her her clothes. Don't let her go into the locker area to get dressed." Okay, this definitely wasn't looking like the best solution to his problems but what else could he do? He had to get to Lona before she wandered into the locker area naked and he certainly wasn't going to be able to go in there himself. He had no desire for Lona to kill him before he had the chance to warn her of the problem. "Carrie, please! How long has it been since I asked you for a favor?"

"I don't know but just so you know, the next time you ask for one,  
I'm saying NO after that stupid stunt you pulled with the head." Carrie said with a frown. She supposed after a moment that she could do what Elmer was asking of her though. Better that she went in than for Elmer to decide to take it upon himself to enter. "Okay, I'll go get Lona. You stay RIGHT here!"

"Lona?" Carrie called as she entered the shower. "Lona, I don't know what Elmer's up to this time but he asked me to come in here and get you. He's obviously not learned his lesson from the head stunt, is all that I can figure!" Maybe they really should have done something to Elmer to pay him back for that stupid stunt since he obviously hadn't learned a thing from it.

"Lona?" Carrie stopped suddenly as she heard a voice, what sounded like a child, singing softly. What would a child be doing down there though?

"Is someone in here? Little girl?" she called out as she headed further into the showers.

Suddenly Carrie felt a tug on her pants and looked down to find a little girl standing there, the saddest expression in her eyes that Carrie could imagine. "How did you get down here? What's wrong, honey?" she asked gently.

"Will you please help Dr. Lona? She's hurt really bad." Mary said, having to fight back tears as she spoke. She took Carrie's hand and led her forward a bit, waving so that she could see Lona floating face down in the hot tub, a skim of ice now covering the water.

"Lona?" Carrie gasped as she saw her friend. Help, she knew she had to get help right away but.... Before she could move, though, a wave of dizziness suddenly washed over her as she felt the ground rising up to meet her.

Mary started to sob as she saw Carrie faint. This wasn't good at all! Dr. Lona was going to die and.... "Help! Someone please help!" 


End file.
